Foreign News: Purge of Purgers

Soviet newsorgans were crammed last week with a new scandal: the crimes
committed by small Communist officials in carrying out locally the
nationwide purge fathered by Joseph Stalin. Typical was the case of one
Pavel P. Postishev, Communist leader in Kuybishev (formerly Samara).
He was arraigned in the harshest terms by Pravda, "because he purged
local Communists by tens and hundreds." Pravda added with frankness
that Postishev committed such "excesses" in Kuybishev after he had been
transferred thither from the Ukraine six months ago as "punishment for
lack of political vigilance."